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Self-healing asphalt

new asphalt

Asphalt is mainly used on roads. There are various types of asphalt. The Asphalt used for quiet road surfaces in general consist of stone skeleton mixtures. During rolling, the stones are pushed into a structurally sound aggregate skeleton.

The asphalt mix also contains a sort of "glue" that holds the bricks together. The "glue" is composed of a mortar of bitumen.

There are a number of forces that influence the asphalt, causing cracks in the mortar. The environmental factors that may cause this are ultraviolet radiation, temperature and rain.

The problem with the 'open' type of asphalt is that fraying occurs on the surface. The adhesion between the rocks becomes ‘tired’ because of cars and the environmental factors.Early intervention is possible by adding steel fibers. This ensures that asphalt doesn’t have to be replaced but only repaired. Steel fibers may heat up the mortar in the asphalt by making use of induction heating. Iron molecules may be heated remotely by a rapidly changing magnetic field.

By applying this technique on asphalt, the steel fibers immediately give up heat to the mortar. The mortar will melt briefly. The asphalt resets after this to the structure it was in the beginning.

In this way there is lesser loss of energy because the energy directly goes to the mortar: the place where the cracks are formed. In addition, it is so that the desired effect is already reached before the stones are warm. The entire surface does not need to be heated. An induction machine is used during this process. It heats the asphalt and repairs the partially torn mortar.

The self-healing asphalt needs a little help from the outside. Guiding is a condition where there is heat by the use of induction.

Self-healing asphalt conducts through steel fibers. These fibers are in closed loops. A coil with alternating current will generated magnetic responses in the steel fibers. There must be a vehicle on the asphalt with the drive coil. The coil may not touch the asphalt. In two or three induction regimens, the life of the asphalt will be prolonged. The normal lifespan is about ten to twelve years. By this technique, the lifespan will be increased to twenty years.

The benefits of self-healing asphalt are that there is less work needed on the roads, causing less traffic hindered. Also, the repair of induction is cheaper than replacing the asphalt. Secondly the mixed asphalt, which contains the fibers, reinforces the road surface and causes less cracks to appear.